Polk County nearly scored in the first 30 seconds of its 2024 soccer season.
A goal in the last seconds did them in.
Luke Schlegel cleaned up a rebound with eight seconds remaining to give West Henderson a 2-1 win over the Wolverines in the season opener.
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Polk County largely dictated the run of play, particularly in the first half. The Wolverines had a shot turned away at the 39:30 mark. They couldn’t convert on a good cross at 33 minutes, and West Henderson’s Wilson Brittain made a good save at 24:10. The Wolverines had a solid chance at the 9:50 mark, two more in the last six minutes, and their best look at the end of the first half, when a floater from Thomas Varnadore was saved.
They couldn’t come away with a goal.
“I said it all last year, and again this year, you’ve got to take advantage of your chances,” Polk County coach George Alley said. “Particularly in the first half. I thought we were all over it in the first half. We’re playing a new formation this year, and I thought we did a really good job of creating some chances without really giving up the counters.”
Meanwhile, Polk County keeper Charlie Wagoner was standing on his head. He made several crucial saves in the game’s first 15 minutes, and continued to play well in the second half. In one exchange early in the second, he poked a free kick over the top of the crossbar, then made a save on the resulting cross to keep the Falcons off the scoreboard.
“I’m bummed for him,” Alley said. “He made some great saves, and I thought he played a great game.”
Polk’s near-misses continued in the second half, including a tough miss on a cross and a shot that hit the post. When West Henderson was able to mount a counterattack, they finally got on the scoreboard, with 6-foot-3 Jack Zalevskiy getting a touch on a corner kick and knocking it home for a 1-0 lead with 13:07 left.
Polk County had an answer. With 6:14 to play, Nate Martinez calmly converted a penalty kick in the bottom right corner to knot the score at 1-1.
“That was huge,” Alley said. “And we hadn’t really talked about it yet. They looked over at me, and I looked at them, and Nate stepped up as a senior and said ‘I got this.’ That’s what you want to see.”
Polk pressed the issue. getting another good chance inside the four-minute mark, and seeing a shot from Martinez sail just wide right with 45 seconds to play before Logan Jones’ final run for West Henderson set up the Falcons’ winning goal.
“Logan creates problems,” Alley said. “He’s a full-grown man, and when he gets downhill, which he did at the end, he obviously creates problems. I thought they did a pretty good job of following up their shots and stuff. But I’m proud of our guys, and I thought they played very well.”
